Southern Nevada needs a zero-growth policy

To the editor:

Where is the water coming from for the Kyle Canyon Gateway project ("Kyle Canyon development revised plan still draws ire," Friday Review-Journal)? We barely have sufficient water to support the current population in the Las Vegas Valley.

By the way, why don't we have a zero-growth policy until we get more Colorado River water rights or a pipeline from the north or hire a rainmaker or something to alleviate the problem?

Is this valley capable of sustaining continued uncontrolled growth? I don't think so.

I know the construction industry doesn't want to hear this, but someone needs to stop the craziness.

Mike Ostrov

Las Vegas

Vital oversight

To the editor:

Your Sept. 1 editorial, "Regulations crippling job creation," is a re-write of Big Business talking points. You rely on erroneous claims and blithely disregard problems such as poor public health and the financial instability caused by companies acting without adequate regulation.

The nation's unemployment rate is high because our deregulated financial system collapsed in 2008. But the editorial board of this newspaper has joined with big business and Republicans, blaming the job crisis on environmental protections and the enforcement of a 76-year-old labor law.

Your piece parrots Republican claims that the EPA's coal ash rule, which will protect our drinking water from highly toxic chemicals, would cost 100,000 jobs. We've heard claims like these before. When the EPA planned to remove lead from gasoline, business interests said 14 million jobs would be lost. Those job losses never materialized and instead we hailed a major victory over lead poisoning.

Nevada is all too familiar with the consequences of inadequate regulation. Las Vegas stood as ground zero for abusive bankers who fashioned a giant Ponzi scheme based on predatory mortgages, deceptively sold and re-sold to investors. In fact, home worth in Nevada has plummeted to year 2000 values.

A lack of effective workplace regulation also threatens the safety of Nevada's workers. A recent federal investigation found Nevada's OSHA inspectors lack basic training and allow businesses to maintain dangerous conditions with impunity.

The Review-Journal may find increased asthma and lung disease due to pollution, unsafe children's toys and needlessly dangerous workplaces to be trivial matters, but we're not sure their fellow Nevadans agree.

Amit Narang

Washington, D.C.

The writer is a regulatory policy advocate with Public Citizen is a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader and based in Washington, D.C.